FEATURED SimCity 3000 Unlimited

Four new disasters await you — whirlpools, acid rain, plagues of locusts and space debris

Create your own scenarios with the new Scenario Editor

Customize your terrain and add seasonal city events

Sim City 3000 Unlimited brings you the classic strategy gaming of Sim City 3000 with all-new scenarios that open up a whole world of city planning and building possibilities! The thrill of the classic Sim City 3000 are here again!Create and control your urban empire with more power than ever. Expand your SimCities with new customizable terrain and hundreds of new buildings, including two new building sets from Asia and Europe. Inflict four new disasters (plague of locusts, toxic cloud, space junk, and a whirlpool) on your citizens. Take on 13 challenging scenarios, from reuniting East and West Berlin to rebuilding in the aftermath of a nuclear disaster. Or, create your own scenarios with the SimCity Scenario Creator. All the great features of SimCity 3000, plus these new options, make this a SimCity without limits.

After playing SimCity 4 for several months (anxiously awaited, bought the expansion as soon as it came out), I decided to go back to SimCity 3000 Unlimited just for the heck of it.

While it may not have the sophistication technically of SimCity 4, and the graphics are not as pseudorealistic as SC4, I have to say that there are a lot of things that Unlimited had that I wish Maxis would have carried forward with their new release.

One of the primary things is the Building Architect Tool. It was so easy to build virtually any building with that tool (though admittedly imperfect). The building tool in SC4 is very good for computer graphics professionals, but honestly – I was just completely turned off by it’s high learning curve. I initiated an experimental building, but just gave up because it was too frustrating to use. I know – in return, we have more realistically rendered buildings, but look at the dearth of origional buildings on the SC4 site. The SC3000 tool is like building blocks, and then you add textures and props. Nuff said. It works even for me!

Another thing I prefer in SC3000 is the general ambience of the playspace. I like that you can change the terrain color, the vegetation, building sets, and the general character of the lighting. So aesthetically, it is a more pleasant game to play.

Maybe it is just easier, and that is why I like it? But I honestly like the fact that you can really solve problems in the game. In SC4, I find it is a complete mystery why someone won’t drive across town to a job like we do in real life! Their houses fall into decay because of their commute time! I don’t see that happening in Palmdale, CA where half the population commutes more than an hour each way into Los Angeles! In SC3000 you can solve this problem more easily – put in a subway! The entire transportation system is much more effective at solving this problem than the SC4 system (with a durned expansion pak!!!)

Look, both games are great. I am in awe of the work that goes into them. I just thought someone might benefit from my observations.

For those who don’t have SimCity 3000 already, SimCity 3000 Unlimited is the best way to get into the game. The game is nearly identical to the smash hit of 1999. All the same playability, the same city building challenges, etc.

For those who already own SimCity 3000, there are a number of new options that could make it worthwhile to upgrade. In fact, when you install Unlimited on a computer that already has the original 3000, you get the option to transfer over files (like all your old cities). It then even does the uninstall of the old product for you (very nice). Granted, Unlimited does chew up a bit more disk space so you should make sure you have room to spare for the new version.

I’d also suggest you try to get in while the rebate is going on. It will get you back $10 on the price of Unlimited. Then you won’t feel so bad spending money on a game you basically already have. Then do what I did: give your old copy of SimCity 3000 to a family member to get them hooked on the game. <grin>

I played SimCity 2000 and loved it; the only major downs of that game were the fact that you can’t build on hills (or should I call them “cliffs”?) and if you have a diagonal road, the buildings don’t come up to the edge of it, as real buildings would. Nevertheless, I found the game rather entertaining and challenging.

So I figured, when I bought SimCity 3000 Unlimited, that it would be a great deal better than 2000. I won’t say it isn’t better. It is. But I think that all the new changes are still very little. That is, you get new buildings, the ability to design your own buildings, new zones, and a slightly nicer interface. I particularly like the Asian Landmark buildings (though the romanization of some of the names is sometimes inaccurate.) But, as some other reviewers have mentioned, it’s slow when you get a big city (even on a top of the line computer), and is such a memory hog that I have to turn off my few background applications as well as the music and traffic.

If you don’t already have a SimCity game, I’d say get it … it is a good game. But if you’ve got 3000, or even just 2000, I’d say wait; maybe 4000 will be a smoother, more realistic version.